SJC rules on first complaint appellate review

The Supreme Judicial Court has decided to modify the scope of judicial review of decisions on the admissibility of testimony pursuant to the “first complaint” doctrine as set forth in Commonwealth v. King, 445 Mass. 217 (2005), cert. denied, 546 U.S. 1216 (2006).

“Rather than considering the first complaint doctrine as an evidentiary ‘rule,’ it makes greater sense to view the doctrine as a body of governing principles to guide a trial judge on the admissibility of first complaint evidence,” Justice Francis X. Spina wrote for a unanimous court.

“The judge who is evaluating the facts of a particular case is in the best position to determine the scope of admissible evidence, keeping in mind the underlying goals of the first complaint doctrine, our established first complaint jurisprudence, and our guidelines for admitting or excluding relevant evidence,” he continued. “Once a judge has carefully and thoroughly analyzed these considerations, and has decided that proposed first complaint evidence is admissible, an appellate court shall review that determination under an abuse of discretion standard.”